


The Capture Theory

by Sasserus_snape



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28581387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sasserus_snape/pseuds/Sasserus_snape
Summary: The Fowlers move to Galveston  after catching wind of a kid genius who graduated early in Texas. Missy is in her senior year and she is ready to slack off and party. What happens when she notices a kid genius in her class.. Will she befriend the girl that reminds her of Sheldon or will she ridicule her.
Relationships: Bernadette Rostenkowski/Howard Wolowitz, Leonard Hofstadter/Penny, Missy Cooper/Original Male Character(s), Rajesh Koothrappali/Original Female Character, Sheldon Cooper/Amy Farrah Fowler
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	The Capture Theory

The first week of school had been going perfectly. Missy could just feel that this year was going to be the best. She could slack off in her classes, go to parties and maybe win prom queen. She had noticed a little girl in two of her classes, a small kid dressed in clothes that her Meemaw would feel covered up in. She was so small but she always finished her work early and sat reading a textbook in the back. When Missy would peek at the girl she felt a pang in her chest. Whether it was pity or longing she couldn't tell but the girl reminded her of Sheldon. A little kid, who looked better suited to be walking the halls in middle school all alone than in the halls of the high school. It was settled then. 

-

“Alright, class, I'm setting you up with partners for the lab. No, you do not get to choose. I am going to base them off of the last lab. First, we have Leigh and Max, then we have Frank and Ben, Amy and Missy….”

Amy was terrified; she had hoped that since she had special circumstances and that she had aced the lab last week alone, that she would be able to continue that for the rest of the year. Bypassing the need of a partner and keeping one of the older kids from noticing her. Amy looked around the room and spotted Missy, the popular girl who had more friends than Amy had years on this planet. Amy had already finished her credits for high school last year. However, Mrs. Fowler insisted that Amy was not ready to move away to college until she was at least a teenager, a notion that baffled Amy. She was almost twelve and more mature than some of her teachers. She didn't understand why the teachers would pair her up with the students; it's like they wanted her to get bullied or used. Lost in her thoughts, she did not realize that Missy had gotten up and moseyed her way over until she heard her speak. “Well let's get to it kiddo, we got some things to slice and dice.” 

“The likelihood that we will in your terms be slicing and dicing a specimen in this class today is zero. Considering that it is the second week of school and that we are enrolled in human biology.”

“Well aren't you a charmer. I'm Missy nice to meet you.”

“Yes, I concluded that when Mr. Wilkes paired us up and you walked over, placed your belongings down, and sat your person next to me. But in the name of social convention, hi, I’m Amy.” She peered up at the girl and extended her hand. 

Missy stared at the girl and then smiled widely feeling an odd sense of deja vu, but shook it off and tentatively grasped the other girl's hand. Mr. Wilkes started his lesson and Missy watched as Amy grabbed her notebook. And listened for him to say something she didn't already know. Missy continued to tune out the class and thought about how much the little girl beside her reminded her of Shelly and how much she missed that little twerp. This was the last class of the day and she had the whole time to create a scheme to befriend the little girl beside her. It would be like she had her twin back, except this version she would make sure actually enjoyed her company. She smiled at Amy thinking of the big plans that she had for the kid scribbling feverishly in her notebook. Missy grabbed her pen and wrote down a quick note. 

Amy was lost in the lecture when she saw a piece of paper being pushed into her peripheral. She looked at Missy and then back at the paper, opening it up as she read. (Do you have any plans later?)   
Amy's heart lurched to a stop as she felt the icy feeling of dread wash down her spine.The roaring flames of embarrassment followed, turning her sympathetic nervous system amok. Her heart was sent into overdrive whilst her blood vessels dilated until she was the color of a firetruck. Amy didn't know what to think. Had she offended this beautiful girl in the few sentences that she spoke? She carefully reviewed her words and found nothing wrong. Did this girl want to hurt her like the girls in her last school? This was the whole reason that her mother uprooted the family to this small dumpy town in east Texas from their home in Glendale. They were here because of the boy that her mother talked about, who graduated at eleven. Mrs. Fowler cemented that the students and teachers should be more accommodating of her brilliance here. Her mother had promised no more bullying, no more hair pulling, ice down her shirt, food thrown at her, boys asking her out on dates as a joke. no more of it. She followed her mother's rules to a tee here, trying her best to blend into the background and not answering questions often or correcting her teachers. Amy contented herself in just doing the work that she needed and hiding until she left for college. So why now is this princess asking her if she has plans later? What would she do if she said yes? What would she do if she said no? 

Missy watched Amy as she opened and read her note. It was a simple question but she watched as Amy turned sickly white for a split second, then satan red as she clutched the paper in both hands. Helplessly watching as the poor little girl struggled to calm down, Missy thought about all of the teasing that Shelly endured and wondered if this girl had gone through similar experiences. Then she realized that based off of Amy's reactions she probably had a bad time in school so far. Missy didn't even notice the girl until now but thinking back, she had seen her around in some of her classes but even though the girl was there she was quiet as a mouse and completely forgettable. Missy thought horrified, that she had startled the poor girl and quickly jotted out another note before the kid passed out. 

Amy was still sorting through the scenarios in her head. Most of which ended in her death, based on the amount of upper body strength the girl next to her had in proportion to her own. Plus, the likelihood that anybody would help or care if she was dying was slim. When she felt the second piece of paper land on her notebook.  
(Chill kid, I just wanted to ask you to hangout at my house. Maybe we could get to know each other. I think you're in my English class too. I can drive you to home if you need to ask them for permission.) Amy felt a wizz of relief and took a shaky breath. The bell rang signaling the end of the day and Amy turned to Missy. “I appreciate your offer but I am not allowed to get in the car with strangers. I am also wary of your intentions and I think it's best if you continue to not notice me and hang out with your friends. I don't want any trouble.” 

Missy looked at the girl shocked, not used to being turned down. “Well I get the whole stranger danger thing ya got going for yourself, since you look like you're ten. I promise you that I just wanted to hang out and do some homework. Plus, I could use your help with that essay for English. I have some of it written but I can’t make hide nor hair of   
The Tell-Tale Heart, other than the guy is nuts.” 

Amy looked at her shocked, “By hangout do you mean leading me to a secondary location off of school grounds so you can accost me and not have to face the repercussions in school? Or do you want to bully me into doing your homework for you since I'm half your size?”

Missy laughed at the bluntness of the girl. “Dang kiddo, you sound like a professor. Anyways no, it's just gonna be me and you. The girls have cheer practice today and I don't wanna work alone. Plus, I can't make you do my work for me. My momma would tan my hide if she found out I was taking advantage of your smarts like that.” 

Amy wasn't convinced in the slightest but when she looked up at the time she figured she was going to miss the bus. In a last-ditch effort to try, she quickly packed up her belongings in her backpack and dashed to her locker, not caring or noticing that Missy was hot on her heels. Amy got to her locker and grabbed her books for the homework that she had and her lunch box, then turned around to find Missy behind her. 

“The busses are gone. Please let me take you home. You don't have to come to the mall or talk to me. I promise I was just trying to be nice, I know you probably don't have a lot of friends.” 

Amy nodded at Missy and followed her, unsure of what to say and feeling slightly guilty for some unknown reason. They walked out to the parking lot and got into Missy's old pickup truck that used to be her father’s and then her brother George’s. Amy rattled off her address and Missy realized that it was two houses down from her Meemaw’s and a street over from her own. Missy turned to Amy and said, “I can pick you up and drive you to school. You live a couple of houses down from me and you're on my way. It might help your whole invisible thing if you don't ride the bus anyways.”

Amy had had it with this girl. “Why would you want to? Why are you being nice to me? I don't get it!”

Missy’s heart clenched for the girl. “Amy, have you ever had a friend before? I just told you back in school I wanted to hang out with no expectations or rules. You remind me of somebody and I want to get to know you. Has nobody wanted to be your friend before?”

“Why would anybody want to be my friend? I don't know the first thing about having friends unless you count my father. Who do I remind you of? Is that why you are trying to befriend me, to make this other person jealous and then you can drop me?” Amy practically shouted.

“I think there are a lot of reasons why I would want to be your friend. I'm not doing it to make anybody jealous and I won't drop you. Friends don't do that.” Thinking back to all the times that her so-called friends stopped talking to her as soon as they got boyfriends, Missy fixed her statement. “At least I won't do that. You remind me of somebody but it's hard to talk about. I haven't seen him in years and he barely calls. But anyways, I want to be your friend because I like you and I want to know more about you. I know you're smart and that you probably think things through and I'm not like that so I want to be able to talk to you and get your ideas. And you look like you need a friend, so I want to be that person.'' Missy was shocked that this girl got her to open up so easily. She had always had friends but it was usually superficial conversations about boy's clothes and pop culture, nothing about themselves really. 

Amy nervously mulled over what Missy had said. She would have liked a friend and studies have shown that having a friend lowered your risk of heart disease and was overall beneficial for your health. Taking her time to weigh the pros and cons, Amy saw her street insight and made a decision. “I would like to accept your offer of friendship and hang out with you as you say. However, I would still like to stop at my house so that I can wash my lunch tupperware and collect my textbooks.”

Elated, Missy smiled at the younger girl. She knew that their friendship was odd—a girl who was almost eighteen to be friends with such a young kid. But Amy was so honest and it was so easy to talk to her that she didn’t care how weird it looked. “Sure can do kid “ Missy pulled into Amy's driveway and parked.

“You can come in, my parents won't be home until tomorrow morning.” 

“Your parents left you home alone? What are you ten? My mother doesn't allow me to be home and I'm almost eighteen! How did you get them to do that?”

“I'm turning twelve in December, and I'm very mature for my age. The coupled with the fact that I have no siblings or friends helps to slim the amount of ruckus that could be caused. Although last time my parents left for work I rearranged the spice cabinet and their latin names and threw my mother for a tizzy when she tried to make curry!” Amy opened the door to her house grinning. 

Missy was stunned by the decor in the house, it was like she was transported from her little town in east Texas to a high end home in a magazine. The foyer was painted a soft green and had wonderful leather benches that looked like the cost more than her car alone. As she followed Amy to the kitchen she was amazed and how spectacular and lavish the house looked. She was told by her Meemaw that the people who moved in had redone the place but nobody could prepare Missy for what the inside could look like. Walking into the kitchen she overcame her wonder and a cold feeling settled and Amy was all alone here. And it looked like the house had never been lived in, no squishy couch broken in and comfortable, no TV in sight, no shouting mother from the kitchen asking how her day was or smells of a nice home cooked meal. Just a little girl walking into an empty house. 

“Can I offer you a beverage? We have water and juice and some soda.” Amy supplied glancing at the oddly quiet teen. “You can sit at the counter. I will just be a moment.” 

“Nothing for me kiddo, this place is nice, how often are your parents away?” 

Amy moved towards the kitchen sink and began to wash her tupperware as she replied. “Almost every week My mother has to fly somewhere, she is away more than my father. Since she is a management consultant and my father is a bank auditor. Although, my father is in town more often because of his office in houston. What do your parents do?”

Feeling slightly ashamed at her family, Missy ducks her head. “My father was a drunk before he died and I don't really remember what he did, probably the odd job when they became available and my mother works at the church.” 

Amy turns around drying her hands on a dish cloth and takes in Missys slumped shoulder and bowed head. Surely this beautiful girl isn't worried what a kid would think about her parents financial situation right? “Missy, I am unable to decipher your emotions. Are you worried that I don't want to be your friend because of some discrepancy between our parents' financial situations? Or do you not like the ambiance this house provides? Are you considering terminating our friendship?” 

Missy jolted up and looked at the mere child in front of her, actually taking her in for the first time, “ No! Not the last one, I don't know. But seeing the inside of this house and how nice everything is and just now looking at the material of your clothes no matter how uncool they are, just made me feel weird. I do want to be your friend if you'll have me.”

Completely perplexed by the situation she has found herself Amy states, “You are the first person to ever ask to be my friend. Why that might be still bewilders me. However, I am certain that you had no concept of my parents financial situation when you asked to hang out, with no expectations or rules specifically. Thus rendering your anxiety moot for the sole factor that you have nothing to gain from this friendship. If you leave now you have a plethora of friends to fall back on. I will be left with the memory of a wonderful person who incessantly tried to befriend me. But if you think that I am vain enough to terminate our tentative friendship on circumstances that you cannot control then you think quite poorly of my character.” 

After such an impassioned speech Missy raced over and wrapped the girl tightly in a hug. Amy stiffened, unsure of herself she reached up and patted the teens shoulder in what she hoped was a soothing motion, “There, there.” she said, trying to comfort her new friend. 

“Amy, I'm happy not sad; hugs can be happy.” Missy said this hugging the smaller girl tighter as if she was trying to pour all of her affection into one physical act. 

“Physical affection is one that I am unacquainted with and especially in the voracious manner in which you conduct such encounters.” Amy huffed trying to untangle the girl from her person. “I need to collect my books from my bedroom.” 

Missy moved away from the girl and went to sit back at the counter. Amy raced up the stairs to her room and grabbed her textbooks and her blank flash cards. Amy was unsure of Missy at first. Really she was unable to comprehend how a pretty goddess like the girl downstairs would ever want to befriend her. Not only because of the age gap but because she was a socially inept loser but after the older girl's admissions of the guy that she missed and her apparent unfulfilling parental situation aided Amy's decision that the benefit outweighs the risk of what she will now deem the friendship experiment. She walked down the stairs and called for Missy. 

Appearing in the foyer she said, “Hey grab your backpack you can have dinner at my house I called my mom on your landline while you were upstairs, she's super excited to meet you!” 

This calmed Amy, adults she can deal with were usually on her side when the bullying began and some of them offered sanctuary in their classroom after the janitor in her old school was no longer allowed to have lunch with her. “Sounds good now we have more time to work on that essay!” Amy beamed her smile at Missy leaving the teen shocked at how pretty the kid could be. She wasn't quietly scribbling in her note book. After Amy set the alarm and locked up her house she met Missy in her pickup truck and the girls made their way to the next street over listening to Missy’s father’s old Neil Diamond disk. Missy lowered the volume and pulled into her driveway. “Now my momma is a big hugger. Ok? I know that you are, as you say unacquainted with physical affection or what not. But in this house we love each other and we’re vocal about it! Yea? You feel uncomfortable or anything, you pass me a note. Ok? Say help or something about you needing to go home. Ok? I don't wanna scare ya.”

Amy nodded mutely, mulling over what Missy said. While she was grateful for the warning she would have preferred to have not known about the hugging beforehand. It made it easier if she didn't have to worry about it. She took a deep breath and looked over, “I acknowledge your warning however if your goal was to calm my nerves then it was a poor job. But I appreciate the sentiment that led you to warn me.” She then collected her backpack and hopped out of the truck. Looking around she followed Missy to her door. 

Missy opened the door and led her in. The aroma of baked goods permeated through the air filling her with a sense of longing. The vast juxtaposition of this home in regards to her own was astonishing. The bright happy walls covered in childhood pictures and religious chotskies welcomed you in. Amy took a quick pursuing glance around as Missy led her to the source of the wonderful scent, the family room had a tv a light color couch that looked squishy and comfortable with a blanket folded over the back with matching cloth chairs on either side. The image was so unlike any house she had even been in her own house being painted in darker muted tones or bright white and the uncomfortable leather chairs that she wasn't allowed to sit on. They had a tv in the office where she did her homework but was rarely allowed to watch anything that her mother did not deem educational. Amy's thoughts were broken when she was led into the medium-sized kitchen.

“Momma this is Amy.” Mary turned around and smiled when her eyes met Amy’s. Bustling around the kitchen towards her, arms extended Mary grinned “How are ya baby? I just finished up some cookies.” she hugged her tight then held her at arm's length, “now let me get a good look at ya darling.” She looked at Amy with a smile. “ain't you cuter than a bug's ear, now don't let my Missy corrupt you or nothing, that girl has been up to no good since she learned how to smile.” 

“Thank you for inviting me into your home Mrs. Cooper,” Amy stated stiffly, feeling overwhelmed by the older woman. She stepped back and opened her backpack presenting Mary with a Chanel body lotion from her house. “I know it is a southern custom to present a gift to the hostess the first time you enter their home. I hope this will be adequate.” 

“Amy where did you get that?” Missy exclaimed. 

“Oh my mother has a closet with gifts in case she doesn't have time to go out and buy one so I chose that.” Amy looked at her confused, “ is it inadequate, I can pick another.” 

“No, Amy it's wonderful a little much tho are you sure your mother won't be mad at you for taking this?” Marry worried. 

“She will not mind if I write it down on the chart on the door, her assistant will replenish the cabinet.” 

“Amy, why don't you sit down at the table and start your homework and I'll get the cookies ready with momma. Thank you for the gift, it was sweet, you bug.” Missy watched Amy's back as she went to the table then when she figured the girl was out of earshot turned on her momma, “her family is loaded momma, but she doesn't see it like that cause they ain't never home. She's nice though I told ya, bless her heart, she reminds me of Shelly.” 

“Baby I don't care, rich or poor we are all God’s children, I was just thinking that she up and stole her mommas' stuff to give to me...And you,” she rounded on missy “Don't you be going replacing your brother, that girl is too sweet for any ill intent.” Missy nodded at her mother. The Coopers worked around each other. Mary checked on the cookies in the oven while her daughter plated the ones cooling. Missy then stuck one in her mouth and muffled a thank you to her mother before setting out to join Amy in the dining room.


End file.
